Tips On Making Money In A Bad Economy Or Recession

With the recent US bad news on the economic front,  I noticed that people are searching for ways to save or make money in a bad economy or recession. I wrote about it last May:  Making Money In A Bad Economy/Recession.

In the previous post. the methods I showed was the online way and it's still good to create new money. For example, you could be using my report to make money online using the affiliate program.

But for this post, I will show you more traditional ways. For that, I looked at what people used for searching to arrive on the above post.



Sometimes it's easy/simple but people might not think of it.

Here are some basic ways:

Get a part time job(new money)


I know your are tired after your 9-5 day but if you can get a few hours a month on the (weekend), then it's one more source of income.

Start a side business(new money)

Depending on your skills, you could do some consulting. Companies might not have a need for a full time employee but might need some third party opinions or work done. This also mean working a lot more hours.

Drop or lower some expenses(save money)

If your drink 5 coffee a day, start by limiting yourself to 4/day. If your have high speed Internet at 5Mbps, can you live with 2Mbps? Do you need 500 Channels?  Can you bring a sandwich 2 times a week for launch instead of eating at the local diner every day? You get the idea.

Save on gas(save money)

Do you planned where you go each day in advance? Can you work from home?  Can you go to work using the bus or carpool with another coworker or person?

Tips on carpooling: I carpooled for 2.5+ years with 2 other persons. The liter of gas was around $0.85CAD/liter when I stopped. Now, it's 1.42/Liter. The other 2 did it for years before me and got a simple carpooling system down.

- Have a meeting place like a parking at a local mall.

We all lived allover the city but work 65 KM out of the city in the same building but not together. Me, I had 10KM to drive to the meeting place and was the farthest.  They stopped picking each other because of the distance between them(5 KM). Yes, we still had to use our cars in our case.

- We rotated on a weekly basis.

If I needed my car to go on the road and it was my week, I would give back a day to the person that used his or her car. We did not keep an exact score on that.

- Leave and don't wait for the others

We had a maximum time before leaving so to not arrive late to work. If someone could not meet the group in time for any reasons(traffic, snow...), they would just leave without that person.  The person just used their car instead for that day and did not whine about it. If sick, the person would call the weekly driver so not to wait for nothing.

At the end of the years, we all 3 saved on gas and that was the goal.

Use the 10% rule(save money)

To help you save money, take the first 10% of your paycheck and save it into a saving account. IF you can make it automatic, do so. Money that you don't see is money that you don't spend. Now, if you say to me that you can't, I will tell that if you loose your job today, do you expect to have 100% of your current salary on unemployment insurance? I think not.

Don't panic and sell your stocks now

History show us time after time that people who panic and sell their stocks are always on the loosing  end on the long run. Who do you think is buying your stocks in the first place? An happy long term investor.

For traditional businesses(save money)

If you have a businesses, do advertise to let your customer that you still exist. Sometimes, it only takes a reminder for clients to come back or new clients to discover you.

For example: In my passed life where I used to worked, we were in a very, very niche sector. It was a non-profit organization but they increased the client bases by going to trade shows. Some new client thought the organization did not exist anymore.

Depending of your market, a simple advertising campaign would also work. A restaurant could send a menu to neighborhood houses or a ski shop could offer a promotion to check the skis before the season start.

About saving money

Please, don't cut all extra expenses. If everyone started to that, then it will be a recession or worst a depression of your own making. You still need to treat yourself from time to time.

Canadian vs US banking system

It's only information for my American readers. We don't have the same banking system and that's why we rarely see bankruptcy here. However,  we have 6 major banks thus less overall competition(fees). Yes, we will be hit/hurt too but on a lower scale.

The technology bubble of 2000 forced investors to return to normal expectation on new technology stocks. I hope that the lending requirements will also return to sounder criteria after this bad storm pass. Unfortunately, the American dream will be an American nightmare for too many.

Check your credit score

You should check with a free credit score service. If you are planning a big purchase or investing in a business, you must do that.
(US only)

Health Insurance(US)

This one is for US visitors since it's not a problem for us Canadians. If we break a leg or get sick, we are taken care. You better get the best rate available to you. Plus, I find the picture below funny.

Conclusion

I still believed that the online method is better to make new money but I just showed you a few traditional ways for making money in a bad economy or recession. If you can't make new money, you must look at saving money instead. If you can do both, you will be able to weather this bad economy or recession. Later, you will be in a better shape when the economy start again.

Be it online or offline, it will still demand some time and way of thinking from your part.  In any case, you need to act and not just read and do nothing.

If you don't trust your bank with your money, you can always buy a safe.
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